BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Backup Punter Wire Services) — The Brooklyn Nets held a mandatory team meeting Wednesday morning that consisted entirely of 12 players and three coaches sitting in complete silence for approximately 90 minutes, sources confirmed.

"It was exactly what we needed," said head coach Jordi Fernandez, whose eyes were red and who appeared to have aged several years since the meeting began. "We got a lot out on the table." The table, which multiple sources described, had nothing on it except a single pen with no cap.

The meeting was called after the Nets lost their ninth consecutive game, this one by 34 points to a Hornets team that was missing four starters and playing a two-way contract guard who had been signed six hours before tip-off.

Guard Dennis Schroder arrived 25 minutes late, sat down, looked around the room, and said "oh." He did not speak again. The room smelled like the inside of a gym bag that had been left in a car during summer. Nobody opened a window.

Forward Cameron Johnson was the only player to make a sound when his chair scraped the floor at the 44-minute mark. Several teammates looked at him. He mouthed the word "sorry." The silence resumed.

"I thought about a lot of things in there," said center Nic Claxton, who then paused for 30 seconds, said "yeah," and walked to his car. When asked to describe what he thought about, Claxton said it was "personal" and involved a dream he'd had about a horse.

"Sometimes you don't need words," said ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins on a broadcast scheduled to air next Tuesday. "Sometimes you just need to sit in a room and feel the losing. That's culture." Perkins then stared directly into the camera for what producers later measured as 8 uncomfortable seconds.

The Nets play Friday against the Cavaliers. Fernandez said the team may hold another meeting beforehand, though "we might just stand this time."